by Jamie Davis
Cari glanced at Rod. This wasn’t necessarily the best of options for them. For the time being, though, at least they were headed in the right direction.
They traveled along for an hour or so and Cari soon noticed something strange about the officer’s demeanor. He’d leaned over and whispered something to the trooper riding next to him. He pointed at something he held his hand, but Cari couldn’t see what it was.
They all continued along the road. The officer glanced back in her direction on several occasions. He smiled at her when he caught her looking at him.
On one occasion, when he turned back to the front, Cari caught a glimpse of what he was holding. It looked like some sort of wanted poster. The face drawn on the paper was unmistakable. It was hers.
Cari pretended not to see anything and continued riding along as if nothing happened. She nudged Rodrigo with her boot. When he looked her way, she mouthed the word “trouble.”
Rodrigo looked forward and saw the officer talking to his sergeant at the front of the group. Rodrigo nodded. He had slipped his bedroll off his shoulders and rode with the bundle that hid his sword across his lap.
It was a good idea and Cari wished she had done the same thing. She tried to shift the bundle around in front of her. The officer glanced back again. He saw her shifting her bundle and frowned.
“Is everything all right, mistress?” The man asked.
“Yes, I’m just a little uncomfortable, that’s all. I’m trying to situate my pack here so that it’s easier on my daughter riding behind me.”
“Well, we’ll be stopping soon to have a rest. Perhaps you can rearrange your pack then. It won’t be long.”
Cari nodded but continued working at her pack. She whispered under her breath hoping Jaycee could hear her. “Jaycee, these men know who we are. When the fighting starts, stay on the horse and ride for the nearest trees to the north. Don’t worry, we’ll catch up to you. Don’t stop for anything unless it’s Rod or me. Keep moving north.”
Jaycee squeezed Cari in a hug from behind. “Yes, mama,” the little girl said, playing her part.
The officer rode to a clearing on the side of the road. “We’ll stop up here.”
As they arrived at the clearing, the soldiers dismounted. The officer and sergeant talked to each other and then the sergeant moved over to speak to another pair of troopers next to them.
Cari realized it was now or never. Rodrigo had already dismounted. His hand reached inside the blanket roll holding his sword. He was ready to pull out his weapon. Cari got down from the horse but left Jaycee up in the saddle. The little girl slid forward and grasped the rains. Once all the troopers had dismounted Cari reached her hand into her bundle.
At that instant the officer pointed to the sergeant, calling out his orders. “Get them!”
Cari slapped the horse’s rump in front of her, sending Jaycee, seated atop it northward across the road. As the little girl fled, Cari reached into her bundle and pulled out her sword. She drew her dagger with her other hand.
Cari armed herself just in time to deflect the incoming attack of the nearest trooper behind her. The other one was trying to mount his horse to take off after Jaycee.
Cari shouted at Rodrigo. “Don’t let any of them mount up and go after the girl.”
Rodrigo had already seen what he needed to do. He’d cut down one of the troopers already and was facing off against the sergeant and another one.
Cari ignored the one attacking her from behind and ran over to the one trying to mount his horse. She got there just as he mounted up and reached up to pull the man down again. A swift sword thrust from behind her slashed across her back. Cari winced and ignored the pain.
* * *
Health damage — health -10
* * *
Despite the injury, she managed to yank the trooper from his saddle and he slammed to the ground. She finished it with a thrust of her dagger to his throat. As she killed the man, she took another hit from behind.
* * *
3,000 experience awarded
Health damage — health -12
* * *
Cari turned around to face the attacker who’d managed to get in the last hit on her. She blocked his next attack and followed it up with a lunging riposte of her own. She managed to cut a gash across his cheek that bled freely. It wasn’t a deadly wound, unfortunately.
He grimaced and continued pressing his own attacks on her. The officer in charge of the guards moved over to join him against Cari.
The two of them pressed in on her as she worked to hold them both back. She managed to fight off the trooper’s blade and blocked the incoming officer’s slashes as he drove in at her.
Pressing the officer backward with a fresh combination of thrusts and slashes, Cari pivoted around, crouching low, using her leg to sweep the feet out from under the trooper in front of her. The move caught him by surprise and he fell to the ground with a groan.
Cari continued her spinning move, bringing herself back to her feet. She was just in time to catch the incoming attack from the officer. He must have thought she’d gone down injured. He’d slashed downward at her, assuming she’d remain on the ground. She caught him by surprise as she rose to her feet, catching the attack of his heavy saber on her dagger, pushing it aside and slashing back at him, cutting a deep blow across his chest.
The officer gasped in pain and he retreated two steps to avoid Cari’s follow-up thrust. Smiling, Cari continued turning around, spinning in place. The second thrusting attack on the leader of the troop had been a feint and he’d taken the bait. It allowed her to turn and finish off the soldier behind her as he struggled to get up.
Cari’s slash with her dagger cut deep into his neck and he fell backward, blood spurting between the fingers clutching at his severed throat.
* * *
3,000 experience awarded
* * *
Cari turned and faced the officer once more. She spared a quick glance to assess the situation at hand. Rodrigo had dispatched the sergeant and looked like he was ready to finish off the final trooper as well.
There was no sign of Jaycee. The horse she was on had disappeared into the tree line a hundred yards to the north.
Cari returned her attention back to the matter at hand. She had the officer to deal with before she could worry about the missing princess.
“I’d ask you to surrender, captain, but I can’t afford to let you go and I don’t have the time to take you with me.”
“I wouldn’t surrender to you, anyway,” the man said, sneering at her. “You’re a pirate and a menace. We’ve heard all about the trouble you’ve caused in the west country. The Duke of Charon has offered a hefty price to the man who brings you and your companions in. He wants to deal with you himself.”
“It’s a shame you won’t be the one to collect,” Cari said.
She launched an attack at the man’s head causing him to raise his sword to block her descending blade. He almost realized too late that she’d followed it up with her dagger from below. He managed to bring his saber down just in time to parry the dagger thrust, too.
The awkward combination left him open to Cari’s next move. She launched a spinning roundhouse kick that caught him on the jaw with the heel of her boot. His head spun to the side and his neck broke with an audible crack from the mighty blow. The officer’s body dropped to the ground as all his muscles went limp at once.
* * *
5,000 experience awarded
* * *
The final opponent finished, Cari looked around and saw Rodrigo take out the last trooper. He turned and looked at Cari to see if she needed help. She saw he’d taken a thrust to his side and he had his hand pressed against the wound to staunch the flow of blood.
“How bad is your wound?” Cari asked.
“It’ll probably need a few stitches. I can’t heal it with magic the way you can.”
“Come here and let me have a look.”
“We don’t have
time, we have to go after the princess.”
“We won’t get very far if you’re bleeding out on the horse next to me. Take off the shirt and let me have a look.”
Rodrigo lifted his shirt and Cari saw a ragged gash in his side. It didn’t look too deep, but it needed several stitches.
She went to where she dropped her pack and dug out some supplies to do the job. She wanted to race off after Jaycee, too, but she couldn’t let Rodrigo go untreated either. She needed his help to locate the girl.
Cari wasn’t as handy with a needle and thread as Helen was, but she’d learned a thing or two after all the times the woman had stitched her up. It occurred to Cari she really had to find an apothecary or temple along the way and purchase a few healing potions. They were going to need them before this was over.
It didn’t take her long to put in the six stitches needed to close Rodrigo’s wound. She pressed a dressing on the area and wrapped a bandage in place around his waist to hold the folded wad of cotton cloth in place.
“That’ll have to do. I’ll check it again and change the dressing later after we catch up to Jaycee.”
“I hoped she would have seen we’d prevailed and come back by now.”
“I told her to ride north and not look back. She’s probably still headed that way. Let’s get a couple of horses each so we each have a remount and get after her. She’s got a pretty good head start.”
Rod nodded and did as she said. It only took a few minutes to get their packs secured behind the saddles and remount. They each led a rider-less horse behind them as they took off northward.
* * *
Quest accepted — locate the lost princess
Chapter 26
Cari and Rodrigo raced into the forest after the missing princess. As the afternoon shadows lengthened, they wove through the trees while Cari leaned over the side of her horse’s saddle, scanning the ground for signs of Jaycee’s passage. Rodrigo was the one who spotted the first evidence of the girl’s trail.
“Over here, Cari. See how these branches are broken off. Someone on a horse rode past this bush causing the branches to break. The ends point in the direction in which they are heading. It’s a trick I learned from my father back at the family homestead growing up.”
“Good work. Let’s keep going and see if we can find more of her trail.”
“We’re going to have to slow down if we want to catch the signs we need to see.”
“I don’t want to slow down,” Cari said. “If it gets dark out here what’s she going to do?”
“We don’t have a choice, Cari. If we go too fast, we’re likely to miss the point where she turned off the trail and went in a different direction. It’s better this way.”
Cari grumbled but ultimately agreed with him. She didn’t have to like it, though. Together they trotted side by side so that they could both look for any signs of the girl’s passage. Rodrigo was right. They continued to pick up small signs here and there where the girl’s horse pushed through the thick brush beneath the trees.
Cari looked up through the leaves overhead at the deepening gloom. The sun was setting, and they were no closer to finding the girl.
“I shouldn’t have sent her off like that. What was I thinking?”
“Stop beating yourself up, Cari. You did what you thought best at the time. What would have happened if we had been overcome by those imperial soldiers? She would’ve been captured along with us. Don’t worry. We’ll find her.”
It got darker and darker as they continued their search of the woods. So far, the girl’s trail headed almost due north. Cari could see the track they’d followed using her Earth Sense. With that ability, she could tell north from south, east from west, and she knew which direction they were going and also backtrack where they’d been. She knew where major landmarks and cities were located on the map, too. It was amazing that she had this ability, but it was also frustrating because, while she knew where she’d been, she could not use it to find the little girl ahead of her.
She was almost ready to tell Rodrigo they should settle down and find a place to camp for the night when they came upon a clearing in the woods. A small log cabin sat in the broad, open area in the trees. Up ahead, the little house sat next to a lean-to barn and small fenced in garden. A trail of smoke trickled upward from the chimney and a light shined from behind the shuttered window beside the door. Someone was home, Cari thought
“Rodrigo, we should check here. Perhaps Jaycee found her way to this cabin and the person inside took her in. At the very least, they may have seen her ride past.”
Rodrigo shrugged. “It’s as good a plan as any. If they don’t know anything, maybe they’ll let us stay in their barn for the night and we’ll be able to get a fresh start in the morning and find fresh signs of Jaycee’s trail.”
Cari and Rodrigo walked their horses up to the front of the small cabin and dismounted, tying the horse’s reins to a short post set in the ground there. Cari was about to knock on the door when it opened, and a kindly old woman peered out at them, holding a lantern high to see their faces in the gloom.
“I thought I heard horses out here. What are the two of you doing running around in these woods this time of night?”
“My pardon, ma’am,” Cari said. “We were traveling with our daughter. She ran off when some animals startled us on the trail. From what we can tell, she rode in this direction. We’re hoping you might have seen some sign of her or heard her horse ride by.
The woman smiled. “A little girl, about five or six years old?”
Cari felt her heart fill with hope for the first time that afternoon and evening. “You’ve seen her?”
“She’s just inside. She was lost and I invited her in to get warm. Why don’t you come join us? She’s quite a remarkable young lady.”
Cari turned and smiled at Rodrigo. She breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. She knew it was all going to be alright and walked into the cabin. Rodrigo followed as the kind woman shut the door behind them.
Chapter 27
Cari rolled over in bed, sat up and stretched as the morning sunlight came in through the window of the farmhouse. She was tired from a long day’s work the day before bringing in the first part of the harvest. It was a good kind of tired, though, born of hard work towards an accomplishment of which one could be proud.
A snore next to her brought a smile to her lips as she looked down at her husband, Rodrigo. He’d worked twice as hard as she had, but then he always did. He always slept better because of it, too; which she envied more than a little.
Cari reached over and jostled him by the shoulder. “Wake up, sleepyhead. We’ve got more work to do today in the fields if we’re going to finish up before that barn raising at the Finch’s tomorrow. We have to get everything done before then.”
Rodrigo groaned and rolled over. “I need to go back to sleep,” he said.
Cari smiled and reached over, tickling his ribs. He bolted upright and darted out of bed, turning around and pointing his finger at her. “Don’t do that, woman. You know how I hate it when you tickle me.”
“You should get out of bed when I ask you to, then.”
Rodrigo smiled and waggled his finger at her.
Cari headed out into the main room of their small cabin and started making the batter for griddle cakes. A soft sigh of “mama” behind her drew a fresh grin on her face. She turned around to see her daughter Jaycee sitting at the top of the narrow stairs up to the loft overlooking the main cabin.
“Good morning, my dear. Are you ready to help us with the harvest again today?”
“Yes, mama. I like it when we all work together in the fields.”
“I know you do. You’re such a hard worker. Now come down here, grab a bucket and fetch me some water from the well. I’ll have breakfast ready by the time you get back.”
Cari turned back to mixing her batter and paused, frowning for a moment as the shadow of strange words appeared right in front of her eyes. They fad
ed as soon as they appeared, and she was unable to make out what the words said. A nagging sensation in the back of her mind told her it meant something important. Of course, that was silly, and she decided it was just a figment of her imagination.
She went about her work getting breakfast ready as Rodrigo went out to feed the animals in the barn. He would be back soon, ready for breakfast. It was always best to have it prepared for him when he came in because he worked so hard to keep the farm running alongside her. As she poured the batter onto the griddle of their wood stove, she thought back to that time six years before when the two of them were first married.
It seemed so long ago, yet the time had flown by so quickly that it seemed too fast. It was almost as if it all happened overnight. Cari shook her head at that last thought. Why had she thought that? What a strange thing to… Once again, the faded hint of words appeared in front of her eyes and faded away just as quickly.
It bothered her that she didn’t know what the faded words meant.
Cari pondered the words for a few more seconds, then Rodrigo’s return from feeding the animals interrupted her thoughts. “Is breakfast ready yet?”
“It will be soon, dear. Jaycee is fetching the water from the well. There’s still some in the pitcher on the washstand. Make sure you wash up first.”
Rodrigo went to the washstand and poured the remaining water from the pitcher into the basin, washing his hands and splashing the cool water on his face before drying off with the rough cotton towel folded on the washstand. He settled down on the bench beside the small table in their tiny cabin and smiled as Cari set the stack of griddlecakes on the plate in front of him.